


Emil's Story

by lwise2019



Series: Mikkel's Story [52]
Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:47:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24055402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lwise2019/pseuds/lwise2019
Series: Mikkel's Story [52]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1536739
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	Emil's Story

Mikkel hugged the two young men to him, not a single coherent thought in his head. When Emil began to make strangling noises, he loosened his grip somewhat but did not release them. He had the irrational fear that they were not quite real, and that if he let them go, they would silently vanish away. Behind him, Reynir was mumbling their names over and over in an awed monotone.

“So does this place have like a bath or something? I need one _now,_ ” Emil complained a bit breathlessly.

“Hey, who's letting in all the cold air?!” Sigrun called from the other side of the bunkhouse. “I'm trying to mourn here! And what is that _stink?!_ ”

He could not answer, was still struggling to make himself believe the miracle.

Reynir could not understand Sigrun's words, but her tone told him she did not know of the return of the lost young men. “Sigrun! It's Lalli and Emil! They're alive!” She could not understand his words either, but the names brought her off her bunk to peer over Mikkel's shoulder.

“Big guy,” she said, stunned, gentle, “let go. Let them come inside.”

Mikkel lifted them effortlessly, turned, set them down inside, and by an exercise of will, made his arms release them. He remained in the doorway, unable to shake the feeling that they would vanish away when not held to this world … but they would not vanish through _that_ door.

“Little Viking,” Sigrun addressed Emil in wonder, holding his shoulders so she could examine his face, “I should never have doubted you.”

“A bath? Something?” The Swede tried again.

“Oh – shower. Over there.” To his rapidly retreating back, she added, “We have clean clothes for you too.”

Reynir, meanwhile, had offered a chair to Lalli, who had gratefully, and gracelessly, collapsed into it, holding his head. “Ugh,” he said succinctly, a sound comprehensible in any language.

“Mikkel, help! I think he's sick!”

Mikkel made himself step away from the door, pulling it to and locking it, forcing himself to be rational, to be a medic once again. Lalli was looking increasingly green and Mikkel, seeing what was about to happen, pulled the smaller man to his feet and propelled him rapidly to the toilet. They made it just in time.

“Reynir, look in the baggage, find a jar with balls of herbs. I need that. Sigrun, please bring a mug of water. Two, in fact.” To Lalli, “I imagine you're dehydrated and probably very hungry. We'll start with an anti-emetic to settle your stomach, get some water in you, and then introduce food carefully. I hope that will get you back on your feet. Oh, and if your friend ever gets out of the shower, we'll get you cleaned up. I doubt you enjoy this filth any more than I do.”

Lalli hung his head in abject misery. He had, of course, no idea what Mikkel had told him.

* * *

Some minutes later, Emil came out dressed in his clean, dry clothes, his hair brushed and shining. “Your turn,” Mikkel told Lalli, urging him gently to his feet. The little scout stumbled in the direction of the shower and Mikkel moved to follow, then stopped himself. _He's not a child, and Finland may be primitive, but it's not **that** primitive. He doesn't need to be shown how to work a shower!_ And, indeed, the water soon started again.

After finding clean clothes for the two, Sigrun had more or less collapsed onto a chair, overcome with emotion, and was simply watching them all. Reynir had set the table for two, laying out open cans of tuna fish and mugs of water, spoons, even, Mikkel saw with some amusement, towels to serve as napkins. He had three cans each ready and was starting to open more when Mikkel stopped him. “Just three, Reynir.”

“You said we have plenty!”

“We do, and we'll feed them all they want, but it would be unwise and possibly dangerous to overfeed them at this point. We'll start with three and then, once they've had an opportunity to digest that meal, we'll provide more. You will be responsible for refilling their mugs, however. I expect that they are quite dehydrated right now.”

“Oh – okay.” The Icelander sat down to watch Emil, his eyes just a little watery.

Emil sank heavily into the offered chair, turning to look worriedly in the direction of the shower. “If he falls again …”

“The shower stall is not large. He should not fall far enough to hurt himself.” Mikkel listened for a moment to splashing noises. “Has he fallen before, then? Is he sick? Injured?”

“No, not … not injured, exactly, or I guess not even sick. Man, it's a long story.” He looked down at the food laid temptingly before him. “We haven't eaten since you left.”

“I gave you some food,” Mikkel answered, puzzled.

“Yeah, well, I lost that.”

“Then eat now.” When Emil looked back towards the shower, Mikkel thought he understood the problem. “Lalli will not be any less hungry if you deny yourself. Eat now, and he will have a chance to eat while you tell us where you've been, what happened to you and how, how you came back to us, how you are _alive._ I don't believe Sigrun can wait much longer for the story.” _And neither can I._

Emil ate. And drank, Reynir attentively refilling his mug each time it got low. By the time Lalli reappeared, dressed in his spare clothes, his hair towel-dried and sticking out in all directions, Emil had finished his share and leaned back with a sigh.

Lalli joined them, dropping into the offered chair and immediately setting to work on his tuna fish. Emil watched him for a moment, then turned to the others, who were possessing themselves in patience with great difficulty.

> It's going to sound pretty crazy. I thought I _was_ crazy, there for a bit, but it, it really happened.
> 
> So, you guys left and Lalli did whatever it was he was doing for a couple of hours, and then we started off following you. We made good time before I sort of fell into a hole in the street, and then … and then that's when the giant came charging out of a building, dragging half the building along with it. We ran for our lives, out onto the ice, only the ice wasn't thick enough; it wouldn't hold me.
> 
> Lalli's so light the ice held him; he could have got away, only he came back to protect me and … 
> 
> I don't even know how to describe what happened, what he did. He held up his hands and there was … like … a shield of golden light and a sound … like when you strike a crystal goblet, I think, it was so loud and so sweet … and the giant kept coming … and then everything exploded: the giant, the building, all the ice … and Lalli fell down. He was unconscious, I tried to wake him up but …
> 
> Everything had exploded, all the ice except what we were sitting on, and by the time I looked up, we were being carried away by the current.
> 
> So I, I … there was a piece of board floating nearby, and I snagged it, paddled us to shore … we got there finally, and I carried Lalli as far as I could, to a house that still had a roof, and then I built a fire and tried to warm us both up.
> 
> I meant to keep watch, Mikkel, truly I did, but I was so tired I just fell asleep and I dreamed … it's a dream that I have a lot, when I was a boy and we were still in the old house … well, anyway, I dreamed, and Lalli was _there._ I thought I was just dreaming about him, you know, because I was worried about him, and he said he didn't know what had happened but he'd be there a while.
> 
> When I woke up, he was still unconscious, but he told me we had to get moving. In my head. He told me to get moving and I thought I'd gone insane from worry, but, well, I hadn't. It was really him.
> 
> I made a travois and I started walking, pulling him along. I don't even know how long I was walking; it all runs together like this nightmare of walking and cold and damp clothes and hunger …
> 
> Lalli said he'd watch for grosslings, even when I was asleep, and I was so tired that I did sleep every night, and every night it was the same dream and Lalli was always there.
> 
> And once I, I saw what Lalli sees, heard what he hears all the time. It was so terrible! There was a giant in a house. Lalli told me not to look, but I, I did, and I saw the giant's … spirit, I guess. And it saw me and it _called_ me. All its heads, they were all calling me, begging me, pleading with me to help them …
> 
> It was like I couldn't stop myself. I was going to leave Lalli there, helpless, and go in there all by myself and start shooting … Lalli stopped me. He … he knocked me down somehow, made me see that they were controlling me, pulling me in so they could kill me … and then I was able to walk away and leave them, it, stuck in that place. He said he hears those voices, calling, begging, all the time. He said all mages do. But he's strong enough to resist them, and I'm just … weak.
> 
> Lalli said I was only able to see and hear them because he was there, in my head. He needed to get out, get back to his body somehow, but he didn't know how. He was afraid of what would happen to his body without him, um, inside it.
> 
> I took really good care of him, Mikkel! I made sure I didn't bump his head, ever, and I made sure his fingers and toes and face were covered up and warm. He didn't get frostbite, not anywhere!
> 
> Then yesterday … yesterday I did something so stupid I almost got us both killed.
> 
> I was walking and this, this, this thing said “Hello.”
> 
> It did, it said “hello”, and then it called me “food”. It wanted to _eat_ me! I, I've always known that trolls were really people once, and they … but I never imagined a _person_ turning into this cannibal thing and still _talking!_
> 
> It was like one big mouth on little short legs and it had sort of a shell that protected it from the sun, and Lalli said it was a “duskling” that could be out even in the day, in the shadows. He told me we had to keep going but I, I, I couldn't stand to have that thing following me, _talking_ to me … and so I shot it. Lalli wasn't fast enough to stop me.
> 
> The shot woke them all up. Dozens, hundreds, I don't know, all hungry, all following me, all calling me “food”. Us. And Lalli said I'd have to outrun them, only I couldn't, so he said to shoot him in the head and leave him for them to _eat!_ While I got away!
> 
> He thought – he thought I'd _do_ it!
> 
> I'm, I'm okay.
> 
> I almost did sh–shoot him, but that was later …
> 
> So we found a pretty sturdy house to fort up in; we were going to try to live through the night and then run away again. I barricaded the door, and the windows were double-paned; I thought they'd be okay.
> 
> And then we waited. And then they found us.
> 
> They couldn't pound through the barricade, so they tried to control me, make me open the door. And I'm so _weak!_ I was going to do it! So Lalli knocked me down again, but then we were both helpless. If they'd gotten in …
> 
> So he said he had to get out of my head, it was only him giving them a way to control me. He did get out, the things' voices went away … only he didn't get back to his body. He was still unconscious.
> 
> They gave up on the door and started smashing their bodies, their faces, into the window, and it was cracking. I pulled Lalli into the bathroom and I thought … 
> 
> I knew I'd have to shoot Lalli. I couldn't leave him to be eaten, even like he was. But I c–couldn't … couldn't bring myself to do it. I was going to shoot him as soon as they broke through the door, and then go down fighting.
> 
> I'm sorry. Just remembering how it felt …
> 
> It was … so close.
> 
> Lalli woke up. He was so woozy and sick, but he was awake and I thought at least he could go down fighting with me and I wouldn't have to …
> 
> I'd looked out the window and seen all those dusklings out there, but when Lalli looked out, the last of them were running into the house. We climbed out the window and ran. I thought we weren't any better off, though. I couldn't run all night to outrun the dusklings and Lalli was throwing up and falling down … and they saw us and ran after us, screeching.
> 
> Then Lalli took a couple of my explosives and threw them in this building, then he knocked over this big barrel-thing, and I thought he'd lost his mind. Then he crawled into the barrel and I – I saw the dusklings coming and crawled in after him. We held the lid tight and the dusklings were crawling all over it and _talking_ and trying to pull the lid off …
> 
> And then the _thing_ , the giant that Lalli woke up with the explosives, came stomping up and _ate_ them. Oh, it was awful! I could hear them shrieking, and the blood splattering on the barrel, and all the time thinking it might just eat the barrel too …
> 
> The giant went away, and the dusklings were all dead, and we just slept there last night. And in the morning we started running again and …
> 
> Here we are.


End file.
